"Berry" Fun Mini Bento Snacks for the Whole Class

 

Since I'm always packing mini snack boxes for Little Z to take to school, I thought it would be fun to make some for the whole class to keep one of the days during my week as snack parent (3/11-3/14/13.) Because these would require a bit of assembly the day of, I decided to make them ultra simple.

Trader Joe's Movie Theater Popcorn, strawberries

Berry Fun Snack: To help make this whole endeavor more affordable, I shopped at Daiso, which is like a Japanese dollar store. Almost everything is $1.50 (plus tax.) I opted for sets of two nesting strawberry boxes rather than single packages, since they cost the same per package. As that meant we'd have two different sizes, I made sure to use a measuring cup to portion out 1/2 cup popcorn per child, and counted out 6 strawberry slices plus one heart-shaped half-strawberry per box. 

My store didn't have enough red strawberry boxes for the whole class, so I got red for the boys and pink for the girls. Sexist, I know. But there are twelve boys in her class, and they only had 6 packs left! It is what it is.

I Pick You!: I had wanted to include animal head picks (10/$1.65) for each child, but Z chose some faceted jewel picks (15/$1.65) when we were at Daiso. I thought the boys might not like those, so we compromised and got animal picks for some of the boys (I wasn't paying attention that there were only 10 picks for 12 boys!) and the jewel picks for the girls (and two boys.)

Berry Hearts: To keep the popcorn from getting all soggy from the strawberries, I bought enough silicone heart cups (6/$1.65) for everyone (and a few extras for Z's play kitchen. She's turned them inside-out to make "Jell-Os!") I had been hoping to get plain round ones, but Z wanted the hearts. 

This ended up costing me a little less than $25 for the whole class, but it was worth it! The teacher said the kids were soooo excited that they got to keep their boxes and picks. And maybe a few moms will use them to pack fun, healthy, waste-free snacks for camp this Summer, or even Kindergarten next year.

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